Autumn 2017 EN

English Issue
Biogas plant located
in Costa Ricas central
valley.
Biogas Journal
| Autumn_2017
Strategic alliances in
Costa Rica thanks to biogas
Photo: AD Solutions UG
USA
Mexico
Since January 2016 an industrial biogas plant has been operating
in Costa Rica, which uses the biowaste from two slaughterhouses.
However, the most curious fact about this plant is the cooperation
between stakeholders from different sectors, including market competitors,
each of them making their best contribution to bring this
project to fruition.
San José
By Giannina Bontempo, Ana Lucía Alfaro, Carolina Hernández,
Marco Sánchez and Carsten Linnenberg
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH supported
this and other biogas projects in Costa Rica
via the 4E Programme, which promotes renewable
energies and energy efficiency in
both Costa Rica and the Central American region. The
first stage of the programme was aimed at creating biogas
pilot projects in the private sector. According to Ana
Lucia Alfaro, 4E Programme Coordinator for Costa Rica
and Panama, there were already similar projects in the
region, most of them self-consumption projects on a
small scale. 4E focused on biogas in industry.
Back then, GIZ had identified opportunities to
strengthen technical and financial capacities. With
the support of German consultants, employees from
ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the governmental
body in charge of the generation, transmission
and distribution of electricity in Costa Rica)
were trained to develop feasibility studies for biogas
projects. Biogas trainings were also arranged for other
public and private organisations. The programme
worked with the banking sector to raise awareness
about the nature and dimension of renewable energy
projects and the need to create appropriate
financial products for this sector. The opportunity
to finance feasibility studies for pilot projects was
fundamental. Alfaro explains that the initiative for
this programme did not come from the GIZ itself,
but from the energy companies as well as from the
agro-industrial sector.
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